The Phoenix
breakwater
Breakwater may refer to:
* Breakwater (structure), a structure for protecting a beach or harbour
Places
* Breakwater, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia
* Breakwater Island, Antarctica
* Breakwater Islands, Nunavut, Canada
* Br ...
s were a set of reinforced concrete
caissons built as part of the artificial
Mulberry harbours that were assembled as part of the preparations for the
Normandy landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
during World War II. They were constructed by civil engineering contractors around the coast of Britain. They were collected at
Dungeness and
Selsey
Selsey is a seaside town and civil parish, about eight miles (12 km) south of Chichester in West Sussex, England. Selsey lies at the southernmost point of the Manhood Peninsula, almost cut off from mainland Sussex by the sea. It is bounde ...
, and then towed by
tugboats
A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...
across the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" ( Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), ( Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Ka ...
and sunk to form the Mulberry harbour breakwaters replacing the initial "
Gooseberry
Gooseberry ( or (American and northern British) or (southern British)) is a common name for many species of '' Ribes'' (which also includes currants), as well as a large number of plants of similar appearance. The berries of those in the gen ...
" block ships.
Caissons were added in the autumn of 1944 to reinforce the existing structure to cope with the harbour continuing in use longer than planned.
Several Phoenix breakwaters still exist in Britain: two are part of the harbour off
Castletown at
Portland Harbour
Portland Harbour is located beside the Isle of Portland, Dorset, on the south coast of England. Construction of the harbour began in 1849; when completed in 1872, its surface area made it the largest man-made harbour in the world, and remai ...
in
Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...
, and two can be dived in less than 10 metres of water off
Pagham in
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...
. There is also a smaller Phoenix Caisson (type C) in
Langstone Harbour
Langstone Harbour is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Hampshire. It is an inlet of the English Channel in Hampshire, sandwiched between Portsea Island to the south and west, Hayling Island to the south and east, and Lan ...
in
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
.
A wrecked Phoenix breakwater is also to be seen, broken in two, in the
Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
estuary off
Shoeburyness
Shoeburyness (; also called Shoebury) is a suburb of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. east of the city centre. It was an urban district of Essex from 1894 to 1933, when i ...
in
Essex
Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...
. It broke while being towed from
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring District, Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-w ...
in June 1944. To avoid it causing a hazard to shipping in the Thames estuary, it was beached on the mud on the northern edge of the Thames dredged shipping channel. It is about a mile from the beach. It is not quite covered at high tide, but it is topped by a beacon to warn shipping of its presence.
Several Phoenix breakwaters were used in the
Netherlands
)
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, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
to plug gaps in the dykes, four of them for a dyke at
Ouwerkerk after the
North Sea Flood of 1 February 1953. These four have now been converted into a museum for the floods called the
Watersnoodmuseum. One can walk through the four caissons.
Two of the Phoenix breakwaters were sold to
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
in 1949, initially towed to
Frihamnen port in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...
and moved on 20 September 1956 to the newly-built heat and power plant in
Hässelby where they remain as of 2021.
See also
*
Mulberry harbour
References
External links
The Mulberry Harbour Units, Portland, Dorset
The Watersnoodmuseum, Ouwerkerk, The Netherlands
{{coord, 50, 34, 16, N, 2, 26, 34, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title
Breakwaters
Operation Neptune
Buildings and structures in England